Mt. SAC Fall Convocation

1. Who Determines the Success of Our Students? Time for a Mt. SAC Student Success Plan Mt. SAC Fall Convocation

2. What does “Student Success” mean to you?

3. Federal Directions – Unveiled by President Obama -- 2009 The American Graduation Initiative: calls for five million additional graduates by 2020 and calls for: performance-based scholarships, learning communities of students, professors and counselors, colleges tailored to promote the success of working adults, and funding formulas based on student progress and success as well as initial enrollment.

4. Build partnerships with businesses and the workforce investment system to create career pathways and worksite education programs to build basic skills, and curriculum coordinated with internship and job placements. Expand course offerings and offer dual enrollment at high schools and universities and align graduation and entrance requirements of high schools, community colleges, and four-year colleges and universities.  Improve remedial and adult education programs, accelerating students’ progress and integrating developmental classes into academic and vocational classes.  Offer students more than just a course catalog, through comprehensive, personalized services to help students plan their careers and stay in school.

5. Vice President Biden’s wife, Dr. Jill Biden, is a community college faculty member A Community College Summit is held in Washington, D.C. followed by other summits throughout the U.S. NBC premieres Community All of a sudden, the nation’s focus is on community colleges!

6. California’s Response California needs 23,006 additional degrees and certificates annually to reach its share of the national goal – a 5.2% annual increase California is losing ground to other states CCC participation rates for ethnic minorities does not match the associate degree completion rates Community College League of California’s Commission on the Future writes report: The California Graduation Initiative: A 2020 Vision for Student Success for California’s Community Colleges

7. Leadership and Accountability – enhanced research—longitudinal and disaggregated data • Teaching and Learning – contextualize and accelerate curriculum, establish momentum points • Intensive Student Support – clear expectations for students; mandatory assessment, orientation, counseling • Finance and Accountability – categorical incentive funding; align BOGW guidelines with federal aid Focus of the League’s 2020 Vision Report

8. The Legislative Analyst’s Office Recommendations • The LAO got into the game – started issuing recommendations • Primary target: how to limit enrollment, i.e. • Limit students to 90 - 100 units – either charge more fees if you exceed unit cap and/or change priority date to the end. • Eliminate repeats of activity courses (P.E., recreation) • Implement statewide registration priorities, favoring recent high school grads

9. If we can’t afford to educate all of the students coming to us … • Should we keep accepting all students? • Should we limit certain students? Should we weed out certain students? • How restrictive should we be? • What should we require And then that whole $$$ thing happened…

10. Signed in 2010 by Governor Schwarzenegger: calls upon the Board of Governors to adopt a plan for improving student success by 2012. • Task Force appointed January 2011—21 members • Dr. Manuel Baca is member • Monthly meetings • Focus: • Assessing student success and completion • Best practices • Statutory and regulatory barriers • Alternative funding options • Effective use of technology SB1143 (Liu)

12. Pre-College (College Readiness) • New Student Intake and Registration • Basic Skills Placement and Instruction • Support Services to Students • Course and Program Enrollment, Progress, and Completion • Organizational, Personnel, and Data Issues Task Force Subcommittees

14. MANDATORY assessment • MANDATORY placement • MANDATORY orientation • Require degree-seeking students to declare program focus and update annually (MANDATORY Ed Plan) • Require students to enroll in courses according to well-publicized and strictly enforced registration dates Student Success Task Force Recommendations Under Consideration

15. Use same “cut scores” across all colleges to designate student performance level needed to avoid mandatory placement in remedial coursework • Broaden concept of assessments, past college level math and English, to include other skills students need to be successful in college • Establish common assessments • Better align assessment tools with college standards • Provide assessment pre-tests and quick review course • Use summer bridge and boot-camps as preparation for assessments

16. Establish different orientation programs for different student types • Reexamine SB 1440 in light of inability to require students to enroll in a student success course • Align campus registration priorities with those of the state and system • Award degrees to students who have earned them, whether or not they want them

17. Require BOGW fee waiver students to meet SAP (Satisfactory Academic Progress) • 100 unit limit • No late registration (whether to allow it, or not) • Statewide priority registration • Requiring early major declaration • Performance-based funding • Incentives for full-time enrollment • Early alert systems

18. Smaller-group discussions among task force members will take place around each of these proto-recommendations between now and the next meeting (August 17 in Sacramento) and then presented during fall Final recommendations by March 2012 • Final recommendations by March 2012 • Enrollment and registration • Systemwide structure • Technological improvements • Curriculum [including basic skills] • Student services • Staff development • Finance Task Force Update

19. What Mt. SAC is doing about student success?

20. Student Preparation and Success Council establishes the first-ever Mt. San Antonio College Student Success Conference co-sponsored by the Basic Skills Committee (BSCC) -- February 2011 at Cal Poly Pomona’s Kellogg West Conference Center. • Over 60 faculty, administrators, staff and students participated the first day. 11 discussion topics were identified; six of which became the main focus for day two of the conference. • More than 20 faculty, administrators, and staff convened the second day to review legislative focus points, current college efforts, and existing data, and to begin to define what Mt. SAC believes is student success.

21. Consider multiple definitions of student success • Review the external forces which will likely impact our work in this area • Explore current student success data and initiatives at Mt. SAC • Collaborate to reach a shared understanding of what we mean by student success at Mt. SAC • Evaluate the challenges and barriers to achievement of student success • Propose short and long term strategies to document and improve student success at Mt. SAC Structure for the Conference

22. Additional college goals related to student success: • #2 Prepare students for success through the development and support of exemplary programs and services. • #6 Provide opportunities for increased diversity and equity for all across campus. • #7 Increase access for students by strengthening recruitment and opportunities for full participation in College programs and services. • #8 Encourage and support participation in professional development to strengthen programs and services. • #10 Ensure that basic skills development is a major focus in its planning efforts. • #11 Improve effectiveness and consistency of dialogue between and among departments, committees, teams, and employee groups across the campus. • #13 Improve integration of campus-wide planning activities. College Goals Related to Student Success

23. The most frequent success measures generated by the group were (in alphabetical order): • Ability to Utilize Resources (Knowledge of and appropriate use of available resources) • Achievement of Student’s Own Goals (Student’s ability to understand where he/she wants to be and how to get there – with confidence) • Awards and Achievements • Completion of Basic Skills Sequence/”College Ready” (Successfully pass basic skills courses, advance, and pass subsequent courses) • Degree Completion (Systematize dashboards to show students their progress toward completion.) • Employability (The student is job ready ,able to obtain employment and able to retain the job for 1-3 years post Mt.SAC) • Engagement (Develop a campus culture of engagement for students, faculty, and the general campus structure) • Global Citizenship (Awareness and respect for differences) • Persistence (Students will enroll and successfully complete courses and enroll again.) • Retention (Retention in class within a term/course) • Transfer (Admission and subsequent enrollment in a four-year university after attending Mt. SAC) These measures were identified as meaningful by the participants, though they were not selected for in-depth exploration: • Certificate Completion • Completion of 30 units • Fall-to-spring persistence • Self-confidence • Self-determination Student Success Measures: Key Findings

24. Achievement of Student’s Own Goals • Engagement • Completion of Basic Skills Sequence/Being “College Ready” Initial Prioritiesto Explore

25. Definition of Success: Student understands where s/he wants to be and how to get there; student’s confidence that s/he is going in the right direction; having intervention when student goes off track • Greatest Challenges: -CCC is a third party application – hard or impossible to keep current -Banner -When can students make informed goals? Achievement of Student’s Own Goal(s)

26. Suggested Changes to Policies/Programs: • In Banner, alert student every semester to declare a goal or message (see a counselor). • Block student from registering at some point, or from checking final grades, if they have no goal. • Provide students with feedback/status checks to reassure them of their progress. • Assist all students to establish an educational plan that includes courses needed, length of time to finish, and which are eligible for financial aid • Need GPS Roadmap for students so they know where to go to get help (resources) and how to map out a plan to reach their goals Achievement of Student’s Own Goal(s)

27. Persistence was later combined with Engagement • Definition of Success: 1. Institutional role (priority accessibility, availability of resources) 2. Student engagement (classroom activities, recognizing generational differences) 3. Community engagement 4. Faculty engagement (pedagogical and curriculum renewal; professional development) AND one overarching, guiding principle of shared responsibility for implementation and assessment of engagement policies Persistence: Enrolls, successfully completes, and enrolls again • Greatest Challenges • Eliciting input from affected constituent groups • Achieving buy-in • Faculty disconnect—separations by disciplines Engagement and Persistence

28. Suggested Changes to Policies/Programs Regarding Engagement: 1. Establish common time blocks for meetings/activities 2. Capitalize on resources and structures that already exist • Establish faculty/staff dialogue regarding effective transformation regarding disciplinary disconnects/separations 4. How do we teach students to know how to become engaged? • Faculty need training and practice on engagement • Develop recommendations for classroom activities to increase engagement • Assist faculty in connecting with students • Look at facilities and how classrooms can be strucutred to increase small group work • Develop opportunities for engagement through off campus class activities • Develop a campus culture of engagement Engagement and Persistence

29. Changes to Policies/Programs Regarding Persistence 1. Early intervention 2. More counseling (area specific) 3. Limit repeats 4. Department access to major 5. Area promotion 6. Accessibility of information 7. Stronger communication between departments and counseling Engagement and Persistence

30. Definition of Success: Student has successfully passed the Basic Skills courses and is passing subsequent courses. Regardless of preparation level, student becomes prepared to successfully complete college level coursework • Greatest Challenges: • Sufficient services: Counseling, tutoring, financial aid • Repeatability policy 3. Assessments need to be given early so students can define what courses are needed • Access to courses and support services • Length of time to complete is discouraging Completion of Basic Skills – Being “College Ready”

31. Changes to Policies/Programs • Early assessment of reading skills • Establish a baseline to measure students’ first time success in their first basic skills classes. • Establish clearer expectations of students’ behavior and performance in college • Overcome and address the stigma associated with placement into basic skills classes • Improve assessment and orientation services for basic skills students • Help students to develop an academic vocabulary (E 67) • Develop pre-assessment and pre-orientation efforts • Accelerate basic skills completion • Assist students to develop resiliency and self-confidence • Review the accuracy of placements • Develop an Early Alert system Completion of Basic Skills – “College Ready”

32. Each measure was assigned to a campus working group who will be responsible for: • Meeting at least once to discuss the measure in fall 2011 • Reviewing relevant literature and examining current challenges and successes on our campus • Designing a plan to collect data about this success measure • Reporting to SP&S by December 2011 SP&S will forward the plan to Academic Senate for consideration Student Success Plan

33. Participants felt strongly that it is important to retain a focus on our mission in the wake of outside pressures and influences. Many concurred that degree completion and transfer are inevitable student success goals, so they did not “vote” to prioritize them in our activities. However, their importance was generally agreed upon and many felt that the other success measures under consideration would yield increased degree completion and transfer. • The need to maintain internal commitment to success measures like engagement and student goal-setting will be critical since external (statewide and national) success agendas will likely not focus on that type of success indicators. Participants believed that student goal achievement and other qualitative measures are as important as quantitative data (if not more). • There is an interrelationship among many of the listed success measures. For instance, engagement is likely related to transfer, persistence, retention, and others. • There was general agreement that it is vital to collaborate and agree on a direction for student success definition and measurement at Mt. SAC so we can maintain a locally-driven agenda as the student success dialogue progresses outside our institution. Lessons Learned from the Student Success Conference

34. Mt. San Antonio College holds as one of its highest priorities the success of its students; thus, the Board wishes to institutionalize its support of student success. The Board will rely primarily on the Academic Senate with respect to standards or policies regarding student preparation and success. To accomplish this, the Student Preparation and Success Council will coordinate and carry out the work to define and measure student success at Mt. San Antonio College and make recommendations to the Academic Senate toward increasing equitable achievement of student success indicators. Given Mt. San Antonio College’s mission to welcome all students and to support them in achieving their personal, educational, and career goals in an environment of academic excellence, the Board views the following general list of activities to be important to the success of students and relies on the faculty, the administration or the professional support staff to: • Support the work of the Student Preparation and Success Council in student success initiatives. • Acknowledge the College’s ability to address the whole student as instrumental in fostering equitable success among all student populations • Identify effective instructional and student support strategies. • Support planning and research efforts to advance student success initiatives. • Promote collaboration across the college and among all stakeholder groups, stressing that student success is everyone’s responsibility. • Support administrative, faculty and staff leadership in the implementation of promising and proven student success initiatives. • Develop partnerships as necessary within the communities served by Mt. San Antonio College to reduce barriers and improve student success. BP 5000 – Student Success

35. Considerations: • Establish timeline/term of assessment • Work with research and/or Outcomes Committee to identify high quality means of assessment • Explore the use of Faculty Inquiry Groups (FIGs) as part of this work. • Link student success goals with college goals and/or propose revised college goals Next Steps